1. Field of the Invention and Description of the Prior Art
This invention provides a method of facilitating the horizontal movement of a plurality of longitudinally nested trollies (shopping carts) along a ground surface which typically is horizontal, but sometimes is sloped.
Shopping carts or trollies are in widespread use by retailers and other merchants, ranging from the large superstores to the smaller businesses, so as to provide a convenience for their customers in transporting their purchased items, both within the vendor""s store, as well as to transport the purchased items across a parking lot to the purchaser""s vehicle. After transferring the items to the vehicle, the purchaser typically leaves the trolley either near said vehicle or sometimes in a designated shopping-cart corral.
From time to time, personnel employed by the merchant will round up carts from the parking lot; this process may employ a plurality of methods that have evolved over recent years. For purposes of efficiency, it obviously is necessary to try to return a plurality of carts to the location of origin, and this is facilitated by the design of the carts, which permits a large number of carts to be nested together, which is relatively easy. What is relatively hard is to then have the plurality of longitudinally nested carts moved in a safe, cost effective, and controlled fashion back to the point of origin. The usual procedure is to have a pushing force applied to the trailing trolley, either by manual effort or by a powered vehicle, such as a small battery-operated tractor. It is not unusual to have twenty (20) or more carts or trollies stacked together; this yields a total longitudinal length of the nested trollies of a substantial distance. The longer the string of carts, the more difficult it is to cause any turning or redirecting of the string. One manual (and expensive) technique is to have a first worker provide the pushing of the string, and a second worker at the leading trolley, forcing the leading trolley around its yaw axis so as to turn the entire string.
There even are some motorized systems which can be remote controlled so that the pushing vehicle which is remotely controlled is pushing on the trailing trolley and the operator, using a remote-control device, is at the front end of the string (i.e., at the leading trolley), wherein he or she may not only control the tractor, but also manually try to change the heading of the leading trolley so as to try to get the entire string headed correctly for the point of origin. One of these prior art schemes is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 5,322,306.
There are several economic factors which apply to this issue. First of all, the shopping carts per se are quite expensive. Any merchant must, for practicality, have only a reasonable number of carts available to its business, regard also being given to the size of the storage area, or point of origin, where the merchant""s customers pick up the shopping cart in the first instance. The shopping carts almost exclusively use rather expensive wheels, usually fabricated from high-density plastic, which function well when rolling around their normal rotational axis, but which can be easily damaged if skidded sideways sometimes on the parking lot surface. This will, in extreme cases, cause a serious flat sector on the wheel, which makes the cart customer unfriendly; thus an expensive repair is necessitated. Labor costs associated with the actual rounding-up of carts is very significant. This is especially so when two workers are required to bring a string of carts back to the point of origin. If tractors without remote control are used, then two workers frequently are required. If tractors with remote control are used, then at least one worker will be needed.
Furthermore, it is not unusual, regard being given to factors such as snow and rain, as well as reckless employees, to have property damage, e.g., to carts, customer vehicles, etc., or personal injuries to employees, customers, or others.
In brief summary, systems of the type described typically require a very large investment in the carts or trollies, and incur a high ongoing labor and insurance expense to cover the above scenarios.
In broad terms, the present invention provides a method for facilitating the horizontal movement of a plurality of longitudinally nested trollies, including a leading trolley and a trailing trolley, where the method comprises the steps of:
i) connecting an adjustable ratchet-type tension mechanism between the leading and trailing trolleys;
ii) actuating the tension mechanism so as to produce a preselected tension between the leading and trailing trolleys to thereby hold the plurality of nested trolleys tightly together.
In the preferred embodiment of the invention, the preselected tension causes at least the leading and trailing trolleys to be lifted upwardly relative to the ground surface, so that preselected wheels thereof are actually spaced from the ground surface. This simple but extremely effective method then permits the entire string of trolleys to be more easily moved, both along the longitudinal axis, as well as to be rotated about the yaw axis or gravity, to change the heading of a string of carts.